PHILIPPINE STARES !!!!

We arrived in Manila where everyone was so friendly and couldn't do enough for you. After a long day's travelling (as we'd slept in KL airport the night before for connecting flights) we decided to go out for a few beers which turned into a few more and at only 1euro a bottle (San Miguel) we had a great night out and had great chats with some local filipinos but were still weary as we ddidnt know the country nor what the people were like... one thing i will say is we never saw one westerner from teh minute we departed from the plane until our last nite... one thing i will remember is after we got off the airport bus we were walking through teh city, there were street vendors everywhere and guess what ?as we were passing a street vendor selling DVD's all lined out on a stand my backpack swipes the corner of the stand and you would never believe it but all the DVD's (approx 300) fell crashing onto the ground, needless to say i almost died ... i diddnt know what to expect next but i kept apologising and the guy says no problem but all these filipino men came runing over to pick them up... i almost died of embarressment plus i couldnt bend down to help as the backpack was on my back... i thought i was gonna b killed for knocking them over but they seemed ok about the whole episode and i just ran tore up the street dying of mortification !!! David didnt c what happened but heard the crash from up ahead.. ha ha

The next day was a sorting out kind of day as we decided to head up north to c the rice terraces of Banaue.. we arranged the bus for that evening so just walked aruond the city for most of the day.. to be honest we didnt like manila.. it reminded of nyc plus all the filipinos spoke with american accents.. we were told teh nite before that the kids learn the american accent in the Philippines from the minute they start school.. their curriculum is based on the american one.. (can u believe it, i honestly thought we weere in nyc !!!) billboards everywhere and the city is also lit up by nite from these enourmous posts. One thing did stand out about the filipinos, they are so polite and answer with a (yes mam, yes sir !!!) any question you ask ends in Maaam or Sir (like americans)......

As we walked around the city the amount of stares we got were unbelieavable i was beginning to think was their something on my face or did we just look like a mad pair walking around the city. This was teh only asian country that we felt like real tourists, its as if they never ever saw white people and we never saw one while we were there either !!! It was so different here but we loved the culture shock ! Security Guards are everywehre in the city.. in restaurants, shops, hotels, shooping malls absolutley everywhere. As we entered the Massive Robinsons Shopping Mall we spotted a bin noting (please leave explosives or weapons here) that was an awful shock ! the guard caught us staring at this bin and asked us where we were from, when he heard Ireland he asked us if Belfast neeeded any security police ha ha ah ... he wanted a job there !! he knew abuot the history of northeren ireland, we couldnt believe what we were hearing !!!

We got our first sight of the famous Jeepney's which is a kind of Jeep/Truck/Bus with chrome frontage and brightly coloured paint on the sides, they have all sorts of inscriptons posted across the sides of them for eg.. jesus we love you, god loves you etc, the main religion here is catholic and also saw lots of Jehovah Witness buildings and billboards !!!!


Manila was a little crazy but with very very friendly people, we were looking forward to exploring this interesting country more over the next few days....

First Stop Banaue -

Located in Northern Luzon, its a good 10 hour bus ride from Manila.. The rice terraces was our main attraction up north and they were exactly as described Breathtaking. When we arrived in Banaue village we got a tricycle to take us to our accomadtion, this villlage was so small in the absolute middle of nowhere. I was loving my first experience of the place..locals walking around the village trying to get you to take a ride in their tricycle and kids running around playing in the street... it was like stepping back into a timewarp. We went for dinnear that evening and headed to bed early as were had an early rise the next morning for our trek to Batad village which was where we could take in amazing views of the rice terraces and meet some of the locals along the way.

our tricyle arrived the following morning at 8am to take us to starting point for trekking to Batad. The way to this road was rugged and dusty and what made it worse was we were sitting in a tricyle and could feel every single bump on the road. From the mountain pass, we had to hike to the village which wasnt so bad. It took us 1.5hrs where we reached a small restaurant in the village called Rita's.. here we got some amazing views of the terraces and then headed for our trek down inot the terraces (these rice terraces are known as the 8th wonder of the world)!! and you know what ?? its a wonder i didnt break my neck trekking down into them.. climbing down rocks and stuff. At one stage i almost fell into one of the terraces.. ha ha .. it was a great way to meet some of the locals and sit and have a chat with them even though some didnt speak english our guide was able to translate for us !!! we had a lovely day trekking trhough the terraces but it is hard work so be forewarned !!

We headed out in the village of Banaue that evening and ended up in a Country music bar. The band were singinig all country songs needless to say American Country but it was so differernt and we loved it plus we knew lots of the songs and then they began to sing (ronan keating - when you say nothing at all) i held up my bottle of beer and waved it at them but they hadnt a clue what this meant until we spoke to them later int eh nite and mentioned that Ronan Keating was from Ireland, i dont think they knew where Ireland was or who Ronan keating was, but one thing is for sure they were well able to sing (when you say nothing at all) ha ha and knew every single word !!! they also sang Leaving on a jetplane, if i said you had a beautiful body !!! which the filipinos weent mad for !! they also sang a beautiful song called (perfect strangers tnite) which im gonna search for when we get back home. Thank god we headed out that evening at 6pm as the whole place shuts down at 9pm - bars, shops, restauants etc all close up.. the village was in complete silence at around 9.30pm mad or what !!! we loved this village so much that we stayed 3 nites and headed to the same bar teh following nite and had a few beers and sang the same old songs...

Next stop Vigan City - A Place Like No Other !!

after staying the nite at baguio (which is only a city really - our reason for stopping here was because we were heading for sagada to c the hanging coffins but we couldnt find a working atm in bontoc so our only option was to head for baguio) nothing to c here really only a city filled with people !! we headed to Vigan from here, Vigan is the oldest surviving Spanish colonial city in the Philippines. It consists of cobbled narrow streets, calesas(horse drawn carriages) a real touristy spot. It felt like a place where "time stood still". We arrived in the evening so as you can imagine the narrow cobbled streets felt so creepy to walk along with the sounds of the horse drawn carriages in the background.. it felt as if the place was haunted or that dracula was gonna appear out through one of the doorways.. haha we loved it here .. we spent the follownig mornign walking around the village taking pictures and stuff and then took a bus to Alaminos !

Next stop Hundred Island -

when we arrived in Alamios City we took at tricyle out to lucap which is the base to take a boat trip out to the Hundred islands. We stayed the nite here at a guesthouse and took the boat out to the Hundred Islands National park teh following morning. our day was spent sailing aruond the islands. These islands are absolutely beauiful. At times we felt like christopher columbus jumping off the boat and walking in around some of the islands exploring each of them and taking in the amazing views of the other islands spread out around them. We spent almost 2 hours at Quezon island taking a paddle in the ocean and a spot of sunbathing !!! we spent 3 nights at lucap and spent 2 days exploring the islands....we were told that there were no guesthouses on any of the islands but when we arrived at Quezon we discovered that there were shacks that we culd have stayed in ( reason we were told this is beacuse the guesthouse we were staying at wanted to make money !!! )... we were disappointed at this because we wanted to stay on an island.. that guesthouse was lucky we didnt cause hassle over their lies.. we didnt say anything as they had all our laundry at this stage and if we caused problems they may have destroyed our clothes.. ha ha ... needless to say our clothes came back clean and smelling fresh !!! she even ironed creases in our shorts.. ! ha ha

Our last night in the Philippiness was spent in Angelus City and what an eye opener.. We told the tricyle driveer we wanted to stay somehwere cheap but clean ... ha ha ha - we could see the bright lites of this city through our tricyle window but little did we know what was in store....
He took us to cheap hotel alright !!!! we were shocked at the guests that were coming and going.. Old grey haired western men who thought they were young lads walking around holding their chests out with young ones linking them as they walked along up to their rooms... i thought we were imaging it. This hotel was full of "call girls" and the ould fella's were having a whale of a time !!! i wont say what nationaly they were or the name of the hotel but lets say we got a right earful and eyeful in the place !!!! ha ha ha
we sat in the lobby pretending to be drinking our beers but were really taking it all in and sniggering amongst ourselves...
oul fellas walking in with baseball caps and bright white trainers on with fillipino women linkiing their arms.

we headed to the hotel restaurant for a meal and the place was surrounded by them. We discovered it wasnt only old men but some were good looking guys in the mid 30's to 40's - im not joking some were really good loooking men - i was shcoked but david was loving it all !!! and i also caught a glimpse of a good looking guy in what i would say was his 30's with a wedding ring on his finger and here was this young filipino girl whispering sweet nothings in his ear....ha ha ha(it certainly didnt look like it was his wife to me) .. i had my back to them but david was getting full view of it ... i was going mad cause i coudlnt c what was going on.
We then heard a splash in the pool and wasnt it only an oul fella with 2 young filippino women swimming around him - i thought i was gonna be sick at this stage... my visions of the beautiful philippines was drifting before my very eyes.... ha ha ha

as we sat for brekkie the next morning (i got up early to have a gawk) we heard a conversation between 2 guys and what we heard was HOW DO YOU COMPARE THIS PLACE TO THAILAND and the otehr guy answers : AH ITS GREAT HERE THE COMMINICATION LEVEL IS SO MUCH EASIER AND YOU DONT HVE TO BUY THEM A DRINK !!!! can u belive it ... they obviosly came out here for this purpose and were also in thailand for the same ADVENTURE !!! AND they wouldnt even buy the girls a drink !!!!! ... then the other guy says to the other I DONT KNOW WHAT KINDA OIL SHE USED BUT IT SURE WAS GOOD !!!! ha ha ah .. i almost spat my tea across the table at this stage... ha ha ha .then one says to the other IM GONNA TAKE A NAP FOR A WHILE AND WILL BE READY TO GO OUT AGAIN AROUND 4PM.. ha haha these guys couldnt care less who heard them but they were having a ball anway!!!!! then one of the guys girls comes walking nto the restaurant with 2 sleepy eyes on her and sits beside her man stroking his arm.. she looked like she never got an ounce of sleep..... ha ha ha ah ha and he was there drinking his beer at 8am in the morning as if he never went to bed... ha ha ha he obviously came down for a few beers afterwards !!!! ha ha ... this was just geting better and we had to leave to take our flight from Clark Airport to Kuala Lumpur.....

lets just say our last night in the Philippines was an EXPERIENCE to say the least.. ha ha ah

we loved our travels here and especially those Rice Terraces in Banaue....

We spent the night at Kuala Lumpur - went for a stroll around chinatown and took a bus the following mornign to Singapore which is where we are now..


Keep you posted..

Chat Soon

D & L xx

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